World War Evangelion
by FFFX
Summary: A man, even when met with crushing despair and loneliness, he moves forward. Gendo Ikari was not such a man, but what if he knew someone who was? What if the entire world was turned on its heels by one man. "Grit your teeth!" Eventual Multi-Cross.
1. A Man Moves Forward

World War Evangelion

–

Author's Note: You've seen it before you'll probably see it again. Another Evangelion fix-fic crossover thingamajig. It gets a little old I'll admit, and some go too far, get too crazy, change too much, get derailed, have the spotlight stolen away from the Eva cast, or just plain aren't any good. I acknowledge that the general idea isn't very new but I assure you I'm trying to make sure that my spin on it is. I acknowledge what makes most of them bad, and because of that I think I can make a good one. It might not be Nobody Dies, or Shinji and Warhammer 40K, or whatever your favorite one may be, but I'm going to try. There were times when I had a really elaborate idea and I tried really hard to make it original and to make it work... but it always became boring to write because I thought about it too much. So here is spontaneity, but it has been proofread, reviewed, and edited so it's not unfiltered or anything. I just hope some of you give it a chance and have as much fun reading it as I did writing it.

–

Chapter 1: A Man Moves Forward

–

Shinji Ikari did not understand why he was called to Tokyo-3 by his father. He didn't really understand his father at all actually. Shinji's father was a man who was never in Shinji's life at all, especially after his mother died. When Shinji's mother was still alive, Shinji was so young he barely remembered back then, but he certainly didn't remember much of his father. Work probably got in the way back then, but after Shinji's mother died, his father just dropped him at his uncle's and left it at that.

Maybe he should have been mad that his father wanted to meet with him? No, he couldn't be mad about that. He wanted to meet his father again after all those years, he wanted to get back in touch with him. The problem he supposed, and the part worth getting mad about, was how he wrote the letter to call him to Tokyo-3. Four words, "I'm sorry. Please come."

Four words.

Shinji was expected to drop everything for four words.

Un-freaking-believable, right? Well... there he was at the Tokyo-3 train station waiting for someone to come pick him up. It worked, so who was he to argue with results?

He glanced out down the empty streets and scowled. He had been waiting for about an hour and everybody had disappeared. Then there seemed to be something approaching on the horizon... at first it was distant, but it grew closer with great speed and he was able to identify a red vehicle. Closer still and he knew it was a sports car, a mere five seconds later he could make out that it was a convertible.

A red convertible with the top down was speeding towards the station at speeds what made it take to the air and almost fly at the crest of a hill. By time it was close enough for him to remotely be able to make out the driver it was moving so quickly he could only see a blue blur on the side of the passenger's seat.

Then as suddenly as it had appeared on the horizon, the vehicle screeched to a halt right in front of Shinji, spinning around to parallel park facing the direction it came from. Shinji's jaw slacked as he stared at the sublimely shiny paint job on the vehicle, enough so he could see his own reflection in it, and eventually he looked up at the driver, and he realized now the man was indeed in the driver's seat in spite of his position because it was a western car with the wheel on the left side.

That man smiled at him. He had hair dyed a bright shade of blue like the afternoon sky and a pair of some of the gaudiest sunglasses Shinji had ever seen. He was dressed in a pink floral print Hawaiian shirt and a pair of tan dress pants that didn't seem to match the rest of the presentation. "Heeeey! So you're Shinji, eh?"

Shinji just nodded meekly. "And... um... you are...?"

The man gave a thumbs up and then quickly turned it into a gesture to point at himself. "My name's Kamina, Kamina Jiha! I work for your old man and he sent me to pick you up."

Shinji nodded slowly. "Um... if you don't mind me asking... why were you so late?"

The man laughed in response. "Don't be so tense! If it helps, just think of me as a brother! Hell, call me bro if you want! In fact I insist! Come on, hop in!"

The fact that the man did not answer the question was obfuscated by the fact that Shinji had a bad feeling about this. He had a feeling that if he got in this vehicle his life would change forever and there would be nothing he could ever do to change it back. He hesitated... then took a deep breath. His life sucked anyway... why the hell not?

–

Gendo Ikari was the sort of man that infuriated politicians and bureaucrats because not only did he know how they worked, but he was never wrong about anything. He knew exactly how to provoke specific desired actions from them at any given time, and they feared him because should he ever run for a public office he would probably win.

"I would like to request that the military stand down from this affair. The enemy is an Angel, and NERV is equipped with the only weapon capable of combating them." Gendo began the meeting with a calm gaze around the room. "NERV was formed and Project-E was started for this very purpose, and I ask that you trust our technicians and our committee."

They'd be damned if they didn't try though.

To Gendo's left sat General Ginrei Kuchiki, general of the JSSDF's homeland defense forces. He was not the sort of man to be told he couldn't handle a situation, especially not one on his own homeland's soil. "What is with all this secrecy? And how much of a fool do you take me for? 'The enemy is an Angel', what a load of rubbish! We do not even know exactly what your Project-E even is, how do you expect us to trust it to be successful?"

A chorus of ascent to the objection sounded and Gendo folded his hands in front of his face. He remained silent.

Sitting across from Gendo at a large oval shaped table was General Bismarck Waldstein, the general of the United Kingdom's overseas military forces. He seemed more level headed than most of the men in the room and turned his attention to Ginrei. "Mind yourself, Mr. Kuchiki. This is NERV we are talking about. According to Mr. Ikari here, this was their purpose from the very beginning, and if the UN found it necessary to create a multi-national organization independent of any government for this purpose, then perhaps we should at least listen."

"That is precisely why I cannot trust them." Ginrei responded coldly. "I have heard of the kinds of things NERV does. Your recruitment program the Marduk Institute, is it not true that you are drafting children for this this little science project? I find it hard to believe any weapon that can be wielded only by a child to be worth using at all, and that would be the only excuse for using children to begin with." Pride seemed to be the greatest foil of the men in the room, and not wanting their well trained soldiers to be upstaged by mere children in experimental super-weapons was indeed of great concern to many of them.

The group was roused in a chorus of agreement again.

So, as the JSSDF and UN big-wigs sat at a table in front of him in an emergency meeting due to the approach of an unknown enemy, they began by ridiculing his secret military project and questionable methods of using a child to pilot said secret military project.

Gendo's silence was contagious as his icy chill of apathy alerted them that he was neither amused or bothered by their objections in the slightest.

"Gentlemen... we have done the math." He turned his head to Naoko Akagi, who stood to his left with a portable tablet up-linked to NERV's computer interface, she nodded and he returned to staring at the group in front of him. "Projected casualties for all possible strategies for dealing with the Angel have been compiled." With a tap on her tablet, hologram screens appeared on the table in front of each of the parties present. "As you can see... projected casualties for any solution not involving the Project-E are astronomical. If all goes well, solutions involving only Project-E have a projected casualty rate of zero."

"These are just numbers, Ikari." Ginrei replied coldly. "Where is the proof? These numbers are close to the population of the entire planet! Your weapon has never been field tested or proven to even work! I don't even know where you received your funding given that, but as it stands you have nothing to show us."

Gendo unclasped his hands and stood up. "Then this will be the field test and the demonstration. These are human lives. Are you willing to gamble on the Magi System being wrong? Are you willing to risk those lives? Every life on Earth is at stake here. So I ask that you trust NERV on this matter. This is what we were created to do. We will launch Evangelion Prototype Unit-00, piloted by designated First Child Rei Ayanami. We will show you what our weapon can do, and we will show you danger of the enemy we face."

There was no real explanation for the silence that overcame the room with his declaration. It was as simple as nobody being able to protest against him.

Ginrei spoke their ascent. "This will be your responsibility Ikari. Should you fail..."

Gendo adjusted his glasses and smirked. "If we fail then truly there is no hope for humanity."

–

After Second Impact the oceans of the world had been died a bright red color, as if the explosion on the south pole had caused the earth to bleed out into the oceans in such vast quantities that it was forever stained.

Then, that day off the coast of Tokyo-3, the ocean cried out in a thunderous song. It was as if a whale that was not a whale cried out into the air. It was deeper than a whale's song, longer than a whale's song, stronger than a whale's song. More than that though, within every living thing that heard it... the emotion of primal _fear_ rose to the surface.

That is... every living thing save one.

Shinji stared backwards as the giant beast rose from the ocean, an impossibly huge biped covered in green skin. Bony protrusions, spikes, spines, and large armored plates covered its torso, arms, and legs. It had no head to speak of, but rather a strange bird shaped mask on its face right above a large red luminescent sphere. It bellowed out the cry again, and Shinji shrieked like a girl and nearly passed out before getting dope-slapped by Kamina and forced to breathe in a surprised gasp. "Chill bro, I got this!"

Every living thing that heard the creature's cry was filled with mind numbing terror... except Kamina.

"Relax, it'll never catch up to us! This baby is built for speed!" Kamina floored it, and then there was a loud... whoosh. A great shadow enveloped the car as something massive passed overhead and Kamina slammed on the breaks as the monster landed directly in front of the skidding car with a mighty crash that shattered the road and the buildings on both sides of it. Kamina's eyes were wide and his mouth hung open slightly as his shades slid down his nose.

The great beast stayed squatting before them as it examined the only living thing not buried deep in an underground shelter. From this close Shinji could see its skin was covered in thousands upon thousands of scales, each one the size of a human head at most, and all of them so close together they glistened as almost a single surface. The plates on its legs flapped open rhythmically like gills of a fish out of water.

Kamina's shock wore off and he flicked his shades back into place. "Pretty fast for such a big guy..."

It lifted its disproportional, long and skinny arm so that its three clawed hand was aimed directly at the vehicle, it opened its grasp to reveal a hole in its palm that went deep into its arm. Shinji saw a faint pink light within it and he could see the spike on the creature's elbow began to extend and also started to glow pink.

Shinji screamed and crutched his head and closed his eyes. "I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die..."

Kamina ignored him and reached across to pop open the glove box and retrieve a pistol, which he then pointed up at the building pink light in the monster's hand. "Let's do this!"

The monster seemed to pause, as the light reached critical mass but it did not fire. It's massive mask-like face tilted sideways in what seemed to be confusion. A bead of sweat rolled down Kamina's face as the tension continued to build.

Then an enormous orange boot punted the monster's arm up into the air and the giant energy filled spike shot out harmlessly before coming to rest at maximum length and then retracting back into the monster's arm. It turned it's body to look in the direction the boot came from, and was met with the boot ramming into its face, sending it reeling back in surprise.

Kamina gave a whoop of triumph and pumped both fists into the air. "Alright!"

The owner of the giant orange boot was none other than an heavily armored humanoid robot of comparable enormity to the monster it just kicked in the face. It was decked out it orange and white and its head seemed to contain only a single red glowing eye. It reached down and lifted Kamina's car off the road before depositing it on the other side of the monster's impact crater.

Kamina gave a salute to the machine. "Thanks Rei!" He passed a gibbering Shinji his gun and floored it once more as the giant orange robot prepared to wrestle with the giant monster.

–

When Gendo Ikari entered the command center of NERV's tactical operations, Sub-Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki stood from his seat with a sigh of relief. "Glad you could join us in time, Ikari." The formality was for appearances sake, as this was their first big military operation and after they pulled it off they could sip martinis and wear rabbit ears for all the UN cared. At the moment though they had to be extremely professional.

Gendo cast his glance around the room. "Status report." He could tell that something went wrong, he just didn't want to say it out loud. Captain Misato Katsuragi down in front was in open communication with Rei and from the images on the screen... Unit-00 was wrestling with the Angel.

Fuyutsuki cleared his throat in embarrassment. "Well as soon as we received permission to launch Unit-00 we began the launch protocols as instructed. However the Angel hit shore at about the same time and immediately targeted what we at first thought to be a civilian vehicle."

If Gendo was surprised he didn't show it. "However...?" He urged Fuyutsuki to continue after a overly lengthy pause.

Fuyutsuki gestured for Gendo to be seated as he continued. That was not a good sign. "We quickly realized that the vehicle was registered to Kamina Jiha, your... um... 'Chief Janitorial Officer'. Apparently the Third Child was due to arrive today, and by some twist of fate was left behind in the evacuation. Jiha anticipated this apparently and went to pick him up as appointed."

Gendo twitched, that being the only sign he was phased. "So you mean to tell me that Chief Janitorial Officer Jiha, and the Third Child are out there?"

Fuyutsuki sighed in what was probably premature relief. "Not exactly. We launched Unit-00 in haste to rescue them as the Angel began targeting them particularly, however in doing so the First Child was unable to secure any weaponry."

Gendo clenched his hands. "The Evangelions excel at melee combat. This is not a problem."

There was a bright flash on the main screen and Gendo turned his attention to it in time to see the Angel's glowing pink spike shoot through Unit-00's shoulder. "Let me guess. Because Unit-00 is still equipped with the A-Type equipment it does not have a progressive knife on its person, and the Angel is equipped with unexpected melee capabilities."

The statement hung in the air and everyone shrank into their seats.

Gendo huffed slightly and reached into his coat before dialing 3 on speed dial.

–

Shinji had finally regained control of his breathing and at some point down the line, shoved the gun back into the glove box. "Wha-what was that thing?" He finally gasped out.

Kamina gave Shinji a nonchalant glance with a hum of curiosity. "Hm? Oh! You mean big green? Yeah, down at NERV we call it an Angel. They're basically big nasty alien monsters. The robot was what we call an Evan... Evangoulin or something... maybe... Evangelagann... bah, not important! At any rate, we basically have those big robots to fight off the aliens."

Shinji just stared at him.

Kamina laughed. "Yeah but all that was confidential, so don't tell anybody I told ya, or else they'd probably kill us both for treason!"

Shinji turned ghost white.

Then Kamina's cell phone rang with the jingle of some rap song. He picked it up and answered it without even checking who it was. "Heeeeey, talk to me." Kamina didn't even pause that long before grinning ear to ear. "Yo Big-G! How's it hangin?... Yeah he's right here!...Debrief him on the way? You sure?... No problem buddy, I'll get right on it!" Hanging up the phone Kamina turned to Shinji with that same grin. "So apparently it's legal for me to tell you stuff now. How would you like to pilot a giant robot?"


	2. A Man Moves Forward II

World War Evangelion

–

Chapter 2: A Man Moves Forward II

–

Gendo stood in the elevator as it lowered to the observation booth over the Evangelion cages. To say he was nervous was an understatement. He kept his expression blank and his breathing calm. His specialty was lying, and for the longest time that was all he ever did. However he could not lie to his son if he wanted anything to develop between them again.

A screen on the wall of the elevator flicked on and Fuyutsuki could be seen on the other side. "Are you sure this is the right thing to do, Gendo? He doesn't have any training."

Gendo crossed his arms behind his back. "No. This is exactly the opposite of the right thing to do. However... it is our only option. The Angel is far more advanced than anticipated. The original scenario... was predicted to occur one year ago. Something had changed, something slowed everything down and now the Angels are more powerful for it. Rei can't win alone."

Fuyutsuki nodded. "The Dead Sea Scrolls... what should we do about this?"

Gendo smirked a little. "Nothing. This is to our advantage. So long as we manage to win nothing else matters. The old men have lost their foothold on an accurate prophecy. I just hope we can win while still being human."

Fuyutsuki grunted. "It may already be too late for that. We are forcing children to fight for us after all."

Gendo's smirk faded as swiftly as it came. "Rei understands. We're not forcing her to do anything."

Fuyutsuki sighed. "Yes... and there's hardly much of a risk to her physically."

Gendo nodded. "Let's try not to think of it that way. I have to go... meet my son."

Fuyutsuki nodded and the screen turned off.

Gendo steeled himself. This was going to suck.

–

Kamina was able to navigate the maze-like structure as if he'd been there his whole life. After entering the Geofront he had taken Shinji into a structure that went even further underground and now Shinji stood in front of a giant purple face made of metal, with two glowing white eyes and a large decorative horn on the forehead.

Shinji swallowed hard. "Wha-what is this?"

Kamina slapped him on the back. "This is the Evanga-what's-it! The giant robot I told you about!"

"Why me? Why do I have to do it? Why can't you do it? You seem really into this sort of thing! I've never seen anything like this before in my life! Why does it have to be me?"

Kamina frowned and opened his mouth to speak, but found himself interrupted by a booming and ominous voice. "There is no one else." Both Kamina and Shinji looked up to an observation booth where Gendo stood resolute and stone faced. "The Evangelion requires psycho-graphic synchronization. It has to be you."

Shinji clenched his fists at the sight of his father. "So... this is why you called me back? To pilot this... thing?" He thew his hand out towards the Evangelion for emphasis. "Just for this... you..."

Gendo's lip twitched in annoyance. "It will only function for you. It was designed that way. If there was any other option..."

Shinji cut him off with a shout. "No! I won't do it! Not for you! Not after what you did!"

Gendo sighed this time. He had no right to be frustrated with Shinji. He left the boy alone when he needed him most. "Then don't do it for me. The pilot of the other Evangelion, Rei, she cannot defeat the Angel alone. You are the only backup we can possibly send."

Shinji grit his teeth and closed his eyes. He didn't want to be there, he didn't want to have anything to do with this craziness, this giant robot, the giant monster. It was all so unreal and...

Kamina placed a hand on Shinji's shoulder. "If I could pilot instead, I would. I can't though. Only you can pilot the Evangelion. Only you can help Rei. She saved your life, my life too. A man never leaves his debts unpaid. So are you a man Shinji? Or are you going to turn down your only chance to help her out? Men don't run away. They move forward."

Shinji wanted to scream, but he held it in. He took a deep breath and choked out the only response he had. "Fine... I'll do it."

Gendo's expression remained as cold as when he arrived. "For what it's worth Shinji... I'm proud of you. I never wanted to have to force you into this..."

Shinji turned his head to the floor. "I don't want to hear that from you."

Gendo nodded. "I'll leave you to the Evangelion then. Kamina, you know what to do. I'll go check on Rei." And without another word he turned around and just walked away.

Shinji choked back some kind of sob, one more of rage than sadness. "I feel sick..."

–

Gendo arrived back in the command center to find his chief tactical officer roaring at the screen and pounding a fist into the console in front of her, which had the unfortunate side effect and bringing up a big fat 'User Error' message on the main screen. "That's cheating!"

"Is there a problem Captain Katsuragi?" Gendo asked flatly as he took his seat.

She turned to look at him, her expression was rather adamant. "Rei ripped it's arms off! But it grew them back!"

Gendo nodded. "You were debriefed before the encounter that Angels might have the capacity to self-repair."

Misato pointed at the screen where the Angel was now seen with its arms splayed in triumph as it stood over an upside down orange titan. The arms were pointier than Gendo remembered. "They grew back as _swords_! That's cheating!"

A soft monotone came from the speakers as the image of a girl with short blue hair appeared in the bottom corner of the main screen. "It is rather unfair." Her red eyes wandered to the Gendo and a small smile appeared on her face. "Hello Commander, I take it the Third Child and Bro are alright?"

Gendo nodded. "Yes, I just finished speaking to them. Backup is on the way."

The girl smiled softly. "That is good."

Misato however quirked an eyebrow. "Backup?"

Gendo smirked. "Stay safe until then... Rei."

–

The LCL that flooded the cockpit was nauseating. It smelled like blood and had a sickening orange hue. Also it was liquid, and Shinji was pretty sure people weren't supposed to breathe liquids. Nevertheless, Naoko informed him that it was indeed breathable, safe, necessary, and that vomiting in it could ruin all three of those properties.

That was one thing, but the hair clips? "Are these really necessary? I look like a girl..."

Naoko giggled. "Aw, come on, you look cute. Besides, they are necessary. Those are the A-10 nerve connectors, they're required to synchronize with the Evangelion." Naoko could be seen out of the corner of his eye in a small pop up window, she seemed to be checking a computer screen and typing swiftly.

Shinji just sank indignantly. "I don't want to be cute..."

Kamina appeared beside her and grinned. "Aw, come on Shinji? Haven't you ever heard of Bishonen Charm? Ladies like the girly guys!"

Shinji just rolled his eyes. "What about you?"

Kamina laughed. "The two extremes garner attention. What you don't want to be is _average_. That's just a pain in the ass."

Naoko shoved Kamina away. "Quit giving the boy crazy ideas!" _He might start cross dressing._ "Anyway Shinji... I'm going to start the synchronization, just relax and clear your head."

Shinji took a deep breath of LCL and exhaled as his vision was filled with swirling colors. Two more windows opened up on his right, displaying a counter of 00:00:00 that was colored yellow, and what seemed like a speedometer with numbers ranging from 0 to 100. The speedometer-like thing was currently at just about 40 or so, the color of the filled part of the meter shifting from red into yellow halfway through. "Um... what are these?"

"Ah, I should walk you through the interface while I double check some things." Naoko tapped on a few keys and the windows shifted further into view. "Those on your right are displays of your remaining power and synchronization score. This isn't like a mecha anime, the Evangelions need to be powered by power plants, and as such have external cables. If one of those is cut that timer will tell you how much you have left at your current operational capacity."

Shinji nodded. "And the synchronization is...?"

"Take notice that you only have two controls in the Entry Plug, those handles are all you need and allow you to control the more mechanic aspects with the triggers. Most of it however, is a biological machine that is controlled by your thoughts." Naoko explained.

Shinji moved the butterfly handles a little. "And what about...?"

Naoko laughed. "Those don't actually move for any real reason, but if it helps you visualize the mental commands more easily then you can use them for that."

_That's... a little silly..._ Shinji's internal deadpanning was cut off by Naoko again.

"The synchronization meter tells you how synchronized you are with the Evangelion. Higher synchronization means less lag, and more accurate movements. Forty is a much higher number than we could have possibly hoped for. You might be able to do something after all."

"Of course he can!" Kamina yelled. "I believe in you Shinji! Go kick some ass!"

Naoko smiled. "Alright, I'm going to patch you through to Captain Katsuragi, she's our chief tactical officer. She'll patch you through to Rei, and she'll instruct you on how to pilot."

Shinji nodded. "Okay..."

A new window opened and a woman with long purple hair came on screen. "Huh? Naoko? What's going on? Who's this?"

"This is Shinji, the Third Child. He's going to be piloting Unit-01." Naoko replied. "I'll leave the rest to you Misato."

Naoko's window closed out for about five seconds before opening back up again with Kamina on screen. "Wicked! It works!"

Misato twicted. "You again... ugh... never mind. I don't like the idea of sending you out there without any training, Shinji. So I want you to hang back as much as you can. Your objective is to bring weapons to Rei so she can properly combat the Angel."

Kamina huffed. "My bro Shinji can take it."

Shinji just scowled. Then a coundown showed up right in front of Shinji's eyes. "Um... what's this for?" Was it the battery timer? No that was back in his peripheral vision again...

Misato nodded and opened her mouth to answer, but the countdown hit zero before she could say a word and Kamina yelled. "Launch!"

–

Shinji's rocketing journey to the surface came to a sudden halt and he lurched slightly in his seat, but not nearly as bad as he should have. Oh thank god... that LCL is one hell of a shock absorber. His eyes glanced around the city in search of the target... then he saw it. "That's... new... is it just me... or did it replace its arms with swords?"

Misato sighed. "No... it replaced it's arms with swords."

Shinji visibly drooped. "That's not fair..."

Misato threw her hands up and glanced around the bridge. "That's what I said! Nobody else agreed with me but Rei!" She then had her own picture replaced with a map of the black Shinji was on and a blip where he was, and a second blip appeared on the map. "Head to that location, that's where we sent up the weapon for Rei."

Speaking of Rei, Shinji looked around for her and saw her leap up onto the Angel's back while it was distracted by Shinji's arrival. The Angel lurched forward from the weight but did not topple. It didn't seem to have the arms equipped to get an Eva off its back though and Unit-00 was now winning the grapple match for the first time since it showed up.

Shinji looked down and tried to make it walk. "Move... move... come on... move damn it!" Nothing.

Kamina yelled. "Use the controls! Pilot with your instincts!"

_You mean the controls that don't do anything...?_ He pushed forward on the handles this time and the Evangelion began briskly walking. "Goddammit!"

–

Rei Ayanami was pilot of Unit-00 and a girl of implacable utility, she did not do something if she could think of a more efficient way of doing it, and then she would implement her more efficient method of completing the goal. Sometimes this meant she disobeyed orders, but because she tended to come out on top in every single simulation they ran this was let slide as good field judgment that a soldier should have.

Wrestling the Angel? Not one of her better moments. However this was because she could not think of a more efficient way to save the Third Child and Bro. So she followed Misato's orders. Not the best plan, but the only plan.

The Angel jumped with its AT-Field propelling it into the air with unnatural force and sending it crashing on its back, and on Unit-00 in the process. Rei grunted in pain. Then she punched it in the head, but it did not flinch in the least, so she punched it again. It flailed its legs this time to try and get up, but it seemed that with the added weight of Unit-00 and no hands it was unable to right itself.

Unit-00 punched it in the head again.

–

Misato yelled. "Quick, Shinji! Before it evolves extra arms or something! Stab it!"

Shinji paused. "Wait... I thought I was getting a weapon?"

Kamina yelled. "Hell no! Look at it! Rei's got it in a pin! Stab it with everything you've got!"

Shinji stared. The Angel was indeed in a pin, Rei hand one arm pinning one of the Angel's arms to its torso, the other arm was pinned by Unit-00's right leg, and Unit-00's right arm was free to punch the Angel in the head over and over again... if you could call it a head. "Fine... stab it with what?"

Misato held up her left hand and then flexed her index finger. "Press the top left trigger, the left shoulder pylon will open and you can grab a Prog Knife."

Shinji did as she said and was rather surprised when he drew out an Eva-sized combat knife that slowly began to glow pink. "Wait... this is it? You have almost unlimited military funding, giant robots, and you can't even bother with a laser sword?"

This time Kamina threw his hands up. "That's what I said! Nobody but Makoto agreed with me!"

Shinji rolled his eyes and charged. When he was standing over the Angel he looked it up and down, searching for where to stab. That big red thing in the center seemed suitably important. The Angel seemed to notice that he noticed... so it's eyes began to glow and it shot eye lasers at him.

The Progressive Knife fell from Unit-01's hands as a blast of energy sent the purple giant flying through the air with smoldering metal and burning paint for a face. Shinji screamed, and when he hit the ground on his back the Eva began rolling around holding its face in pain. "Ow! Sonova-!"

Misato yelled again. "Focus Shinji! You're not actually hurt! It's just the feedback!"

Shinji flipped off the view screen. "I hate you people so much right now." Unit-01 stood up, still clutching its face with one hand. "I mean seriously... you don't think you could have warned me that if the Eva gets hurt I feel the pain?"

–

Gendo glanced around the command room. "Where's Naoko. She was supposed to explain the synchronization process."

Kamina saluted from the view-screen. "Ditching work sir."

Naoko entered the main bridge through the swooshing sliding door. "I am not. I was coming here. How's everything?"

Gendo rolled his eyes. "Somebody forgot to tell Shinji that synchronization works both ways."

Shinji yelled from Misato's computer. "It's stupid! Who makes kids pilot robots like that?"

Naoko nodded and crossed her arms sagely. "That's what I said. Nobody but Maya agreed with me."


	3. A Man Moves Forward III

World War Evangelion

–

Chapter 3: A Man Moves Forward III

–

Unit-01 rose back to its feet and shook its head slightly to shake off the thin layer of ash and burnt paint that covered it. This was more Shinji going through the motions of clearing his head and not really thinking about it. "That's it. I give up. I am not piloting this thing anymore. I'm going home."

Gendo appeared on screen. "I'm afraid that is not possible. If the Angel wins, you will not have a home to go to. We should not have deviated from the plan, you will retrieve a weapon for Rei and watch from the sidelines."

Shinji grit his teeth. "Fine. Just... fine. Where is it?"

Unit-01 looked around on Shinji's command and one of the buildings flashed with a green overlay. Naoko's voice was in his ear now. "I've highlighted the target structure. It is a weapons delivery system."

Unit-01 began marching towards the building in a stance that could only be described as a byproduct of utter frustration. With a final stomp it stood before the building and then ducked reflexively at the sound of an explosion. "Oh what now?"

–

Rei understood something about the Angels in that moment. She understood that they did not understand. They truly did not understand anything. They existed in a self contained isolation, their minds separated from each other and anything else by an impenetrable barrier forged by their very soul. They did not understand that it was even possible for others to exist, and therefor lacked the capacity to acknowledge themselves. They were beasts, frighteningly intelligent for certain, but incapable of using that intelligence to any degree of effectiveness because they simply could not understand the world around them.

At least... that was the theory. The Third Angel struggled against her never-ending grip before abruptly stopping. It seemed to suddenly have an epiphany about how to remove her and Rei heard a song playing in her ears as it did so.

That was when Rei learned something new about the Angels. They did not understand the world around them, but for some inexplicable reason they could adapt to it more rapidly than she could have ever predicted.

Somehow it decided that the eye-beams it used to protect itself from Unit-01 were magnificent, but incapable of reaching its back. Therefor, it did what Rei thought was impossible, and it willfully decided to evolve.

Rei's eyes widened as the bony plate on its back began to change shape. "Tactical retreat." She reminded herself before letting go of the Angel and shoving it off of her before the two cannons mounted on the Angel's back fired and engulfed three city blocks in raging cross-shaped fire.

"Rei!" Misato and Kamina yelled in unison, their expressions one mirrored of horror between them. Gendo's hands tightened as he grimaced.

The bridge was silent until Maya whispered. "Unit-00... has gone silent..."

–

The Angel rose to an upright position and stretched slightly, because it was starting to understand its own body, and more impossibly how it's body interacted with the world around it. Then it turned its eyes on Unit-01, lifted its sword shaped arms, and charged.

For Shinji, his mind went completely blank and he ducked his head in terror.

"_Do not worry Third Child. I am alive."_

Shinji froze and the world itself slowed to a crawl and he saw a girl his age, colored pure white and if not for the fact that she lacked any discernible features he would have said she was naked too. Her red eyes met his blue and she smiled. "W-what...?"

"_You do not need to speak, merely think. I am projecting my consciousness to you, for my own body has lapsed into unconsciousness."_

Shinji gaped and no words came out of his mouth no matter how hard he tried.

"_Look ahead of you, Shinji Ikari, the being that stands before you. You believe it to be real and yet refuse to acknowledge psychic phenomenon?"_

Shinji flinched. _S-sorry..._

The white girl remained straight faced. _"My name is Rei. I will teach you how to pilot the Evangelion to defeat the Third Angel."_

Shinji choked on his breath, in spite of breathing LCL. "W-what?"

The psychic projection of Unit-00's pilot frowned and deftly flicked Shinji on the forehead, and he recoiled in surprise when he actually felt the flick in spite of not actually being flicked by anything physical. _"Mind-voice, Pilot Ikari. You will confuse the bridge crew."_

Shinji shrank in his seat. _S-sorry..._

Rei shifted around and float behind him so as to no longer obstruct his view of the Angel. _"The Evangelion functions on psycho-graphic synchronization, in other words it has its own brain and brain waves. Piloting the Evangelion is a psychic act aided by modern technology. Simply put, the more you think of the Evangelion as your own body, the more it will act like your own body."_

Shinji nodded slightly. _Ok..._

Rei nodded, although Shinji felt it more than he saw it. _"However you will not need that method. Normally it is needed because the Evangelion is proportionally superhuman. It is four times superior to a human body of its size in every way. Synchronization above one hundred percent is normally required to access this might. For you, and your naturally high synchronization, there is an alternative."_

Shinji blinked. _What?_

Rei sighed in his ear and placed both of her hands on his shoulders. The sensation was rather freaky. _"When you moved the Evangelion through the use of the handles, you pictured it walking, pictured it as a giant robot to be piloted, correct?"_

Shinji nodded stiffly.

Rei moved her hands down to grasp the handles with him, putting her body intersecting with his to accomplish this, although unlike when she touched him before he felt nothing. _"Because your synchronization is naturally high, you can think of the Evangelion as a machine and still be able to pilot it. Therefor, you can visualize it, not as your body, but as something you can control..."_ Sensing his confusion before he could voice it she sighed. _"It is like... playing a video game. Only you can use any move so long as you can visualize it. This is a method only you can use, just be careful of the lag from a synchronization below one hundred percent."_

Shinji's eyes widened for a moment, then his expression grew serious and he smirked slightly. "Alright... I understand."

Rei let herself one small smile before vanishing from his mind.

Shinji glanced at the communication screen beside him. "Rei is fine, she's just unconscious. She'll be safe in her Eva for now. I've got an Angel to beat."

Unit-01 charged, sliding under the Angel's swing, and brought its fist up as as it stood to full height, its arm and upper-body twisting as it did so. Shinji gave a loud battle cry as he did so. "Shoryuken!"

–

Misato gaped. "Did Shinji just..."

Naoko had her face buried in her palm. "Yes..."

Kamina laughed and pumped his fist in a manly fashion. "Magnificent punch Shinji! Let your manly soul burn brightly and deliver your power hard earned through hours spent at the arcade!"

Gendo's lip twitched. "Status."

Maya flinched, but skimmed over the data. "Shinji's synchronization is holding steady at... around thirty-one percent. It went down... but the Evangelion's physical output has increased."

Gendo folded his hands to hide his growing smirk. _Good girl... Rei._ "Captain Katsuragi, what is your plan?"

Misato blinked. "Honestly sir? Shinji seems to have things well underway. I think we're good to let him just keep punching it until it stops living."

Gendo turned to look at Naoko, who was already quirking an eyebrow at Maya. The mousy young woman ran her eyes over the data on her screen as she input commands. "The Magi give that plan an approximated forty percent probability of success... although the default solution of aerial dropping enough N2 mines to level the entire city only yields a ten percent chance of success. That is a... four hundred percent improvement."

Gendo nodded. "And what if we armed Unit-01 with a gun?"

Maya quirked an eyebrow. "For some reason success plummets to seven percent probability for that strategy..." She looked over to Naoko and pouted. "Sempai?"

Naoko puffed her chest proudly. "The Magi is never wrong!" Kamina would approve, but she herself had doubts. She'd have to check their math on that one before the next angel arrives to make sure melee was truly the preferred method of combat.

Gendo just blinked a couple of times. "Proceed."

–

Each successful strike had a strange effect on Shinji in that time. The sensation of adrenaline remained but it was not fueling his more natural flight response when he was confronted with some manner of danger. No, some alien feeling was creeping through his mind. A more than the feeling of exasperation and frustrated disbelief that had fueled him when he first began.

Confidence.

He realized slowly that he actually believed he could win, and his mouth began to twist into a grin with every punch that collided with the green skinned alien. Each blow knocking off scales the size of car doors that to him looked like mere scabs. Bony carapace fractured under a blow to the monster's face and Shinji understood exactly why boys his age played sports and fought each other.

When it was real, and when you _knew_ you could win, there was no greater feeling in the world.

The Angel swung an arm and Shinji clapped his hands to catch the blade between them, the rosette light that coursed over the blade began to burn the Eva's palms slightly but Shinji endured.

They were they Eva's palms, not his.

He twisted the Eva's arms, and the blade snapped clean in half, then he brought his right fist up fingers opening in a claw-like rake, digging under the large red core on the Angel's belly and the violet behemoth lifted the green titan overhead.

The orange hexagonal barrier of the AT-Field began to sing into existence between them, lighting the sky in a massive halo. Shinji felt it then, the Evangelion reaching for his mind in the moment of triumph. He decided there was no better time to let it in.

"Listen up you big Godzilla reject..." The Evangelion's external speakers had activated on their own...

–

"I don't care what you really are, where you came from, or what you came here to do..."

Kamina's perpetual grin widened in satisfaction as he crossed his arms triumphantly.

–

"I don't know what's going on, how this Evangelion works, or what it is capable of..."

Gendo's hands folded in front of his face, hiding a smirk of pride.

–

"But I do know this... whatever you want puts peoples lives at risk... and I. Will. Not. Allow it!" The AT-Field rippled and began to spiderweb from the point of impact between them.

A boy stood on a rooftop holding a young girl in his arms, her eyes sparkled in wonder, while his remained wide in astonishment.

–

Shinji closed his eyes, he could feel the Evangelion resonating with him as he spoke. The words of the Evangelion itself, his words were no different. "I know it now! The purpose of the Evangelion! With these hands I will protect everyone and reach for it! Humanity's bright future!"

The titan's fist clenched, the red orb shattered, and with it the AT-Field in the sky was obliterated while holding back a single massive detonation. The shape of a colossal cross of violent radiation and fire cascaded up for almost a full mile.

The field finally broke, and rained shimmering golden light on the city.

The Evangelion stood triumphant in the center of Tokyo-3 well after sunrise.

–

Part 1

A Man Moves Forward

:End:

–

The piano abruptly stopped, his fingers lingered on the final notes and his lips quivered for a brief moment before he gasped a breath to choke back his sorrow.

"Sachiel..."

A lone red stained tear struck the piano.

"Brother..."

* * *

AN: To me, these first three chapters are all a part of Chapter 1. I might condense them eventually, but for now I will leave them as is. This is why the chapters are so short in fact. I intended it to be easier for me to release chapters in that way, but in the end writers block is hard. I had a lot of trouble because of some of the mood whiplash between Kamina's antics and Rei suddenly getting taken out. I hope this meets expectations set for the story so far.

Thank you for reading.


End file.
